En levande kulturmiljögård

Wwoofer Profiles - Part 4

Greetings from Australia, for the last time! Yes, it's time to give the blog back to the current blog-responsible, so this is the last time I'll be writing for you all. Thanks to Bengt and Maria for letting me hijack the blog for the last couple of weeks...not that they had much of a choice muhahahahaha! I hope you've all found these profiles somewhat interesting, and I'd love to see some more from future blog-responsibles in times to come. Wishing you all only G days forever :)

An

Age: 28

Country: Australia

Length of stay: 1 month

Responsibilities: Garden Gnome, Blog-Resposible, Calves

What brings you to Allmogegarden?

In a nutshell - I wanted to get away from my desk job, travel alone and explore Scandinavia. But this is what I actually wrote in my wwoofing hosting request...

"I'm a computer programmer, working for the government in the capital of Australia. My job is fine and allows me to live comfortably, but the office is climate-controlled, I sit down all day, and usually spend most of the day eating because I'm bored! I often find myself staring out the window, wondering what it's like outside.

I love being outside, and Allmogegården looks like a beautiful place to explore. I also enjoy cooking and live to eat, so I'm definitely interested in learning how fruit and vegetables are grown organically, and it would be great to learn some traditional Swedish recipes as well ... I guess I just want to spend some time working hard in a physical way, and to feel the tiredness from a hard day's work."

What did you think it would be like?

I thought the work would be physically hard, and I would definitely lose a bit of weight. I was a little worried about having to share one bathroom with so many people...I thought the last person to shower each day would only ever have cold water. I was pretty sure the internet would be slow and unreliable. I thought the weather would be cool and fine at that time of year (June).

What is it actually like?

The lifestyle made me more physically tired than I'd imagined, but I think that had a lot to do with waking up so early every day. Sharing the bathroom never became an issue in our group because everyone was quite considerate about not hogging the shower. Also it helped that not everybody showered every day. The panroom-heated hot water system was very reliable (thanks Toby!) and I never had a cold shower. The internet speed was ok, but had to be shared between a lot of people so could only be used sparingly. It was actually warmer and much more humid than I was expecting. And I ended up putting on weight after my time on the farm because we had some great cooks! I couldn't resist all that homemade bread and butter :D

Have you ever worked on a farm before?

No - I've always been a city kid.

What do you do in your downtime here?

I slept in, explored the woods, and worked in the greenhouse.

Best thing about WWOOFing at Allmogegarden?

Bengt and Maria are very generous with their time and knowledge, and I was amazed (and a little scared) at how much freedom I was given in my responsibilities, and the level of trust they put in me as a person with such little experience of working with crops and animals. It's pretty cool to see how open they are to collaboration and discussion on how different things are managed on the farm.

Worst thing?

Having to wake up early every day....and then waking up even earlier than your alarm because the flies and/or cats won't leave you alone haha! Realising you've unwound silo the wrong way is also a bit painful. Stinging nettles are just the worst things ever.

Most memorable moment?

The Midsummer's Day celebrations, and all the preparations in the lead-up, were amazing. On an unrelated note, sleeping in laundry baskets is surprisingly comfy! Harvesting potatoes for the first time ever was a definite highlight for me.

How do you think your Allmogegarden experience has changed you?

I've never really liked gardening but I started to after spending a month tending to the tomato plants in the greenhouse. I enjoyed it so much that I started doing greenhouse work in my spare time on weekends because I found it so calming.

I think it's always good to be exposed to different perspectives in life, and I was surrounded by people that were quite different to the people I usually hang out with at home...I understand a lot more about Germans now too!It was really interesting to hear what had brought different people to Allmogegarden, and the significance of their Allmogegarden experiences (past and present). To think that I was only there for a month, and then to think about how many people have come through Allmogegarden, and all their backstories, and what this place might mean / have meant to them...it's actually pretty mind-blowing to me. It just made me realise that Allmogegarden is a place that holds history for a lot of people.